Tuesday, November 22, 2011

DIY Tuesday: Easy Handmade Stocking

Handmade Christmas stockings are a tradition in my family. My Grandma made needlepoint stockings for all 20 of her grandchildren and even though we all fight about who's is best, we each cherish and love them (even the ones that look like 70's shag rugs :)

Last year, I was determined to make my little guy a needlepoint stocking for his own. I went online, ordered the perfect pattern, and started working on it a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. I worked on it almost every evening after putting my baby to bed.

Apparently, I either chose the most difficult pattern known to man kind or I'm just really bad at needlepoint because weeks went by and this was all I had completed...

I hate to be a quitter, but I had to come to terms with the fact that the stocking would never be finished in time for Christmas. I decided it would be ok if I finished it the following year but the other day I pulled it out of the closet and realized that it was even less complete then what I had remembered.

I still really wanted to do a handmade Christmas stocking for my little one so I started looking for alternative ideas online that would still look great but were less work (much less work).

I really loved the knitted stocking look (but after a failed knitting attempt a couple of years ago I decided that would also be too difficult for me). Then I found a tutorial on YouTube that shows you how to make a stocking using a simple round knitting loom (the same kind my 8 year old cousin knows how to use:)

I chose a few rustic looking yarn colors and got to work! It only took me about 4 or 5 hours to finish it and I love how it turned out (ok, I admit it looks a little homely and there are a few holes in the heel, but it just adds more character to it right?)

Click below to get more instructions...

Handmade Knit Stocking - on a round knitting loom

Materials NeededYarn - color is you choiceRound knitting loom - can purchase at most craft stores, or even Wal-mart. *The size of loom you will need just depends on how wide you want your finished stocking to look. The loom I used was about 8" in diameter and made a stocking about 7" in width.Knitting pick toolLarge plastic knitting needle

The You-Tube tutorials I followed are actually intended for a smaller stocking size, so I had to adjust the number of pegs I used for the heel...The man who posted the tutorials listed them in a sequence of around 10 videos. You can find the first video tutorial HERE (then look on the sidebar for his additional videos).

13 comments:

Andrea this stocking is beautiful! I love the look of it and I have to admit I like this one better than the one that you were working on and never finished! We have just plain store-bought stockings, but once we have kids I'd love to make something like this!

Beautiful! My grandmother made needlepoint stockings for us too and we also love to argue about who's is the best! I love that you are carrying on that tradition with your son - handmade stocking are the best :)